Finance

Those looking to run advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related products may soon have to steer clear of Twitter, which Sky News reported on Sunday is “preparing to prohibit a range of cryptocurrency advertisements amid looming regulatory intervention in the sector.” Read More >>

Hey, remember initial coin offerings, the almost totally unregulated form of investment vehicle in which investors trade real cash or assets in exchange for virtual “tokens” in cryptocurrency-backed startups? You know, that hot new crypto market that the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, warned everyone was rife with scams? Those very ICOs that the Securities and Exchange Commission told everyone to be very careful about because of the “greater opportunities for fraud and manipulation”? Read More >>

Per CNBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup all announced the new restrictions as the price of Bitcoin plummeted to below $8,000 (£5,670) on Friday, less than half of the high of over $19,000 (£13,460) it hit in mid-December. Read More >>

All good things must come to an end—and bad things, too. Bitcoin has had a hell of a ride over the last year, but that all seems to be over as almost 60 per cent of its value has vanished in the last month. Enthusiasm in the cryptocurrency market is low as Bitcoin dropped below $8,000 (£5,664) for the first time since November. Read More >>

Jointstatements from both the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have effectively put a freeze on cryptocurrency futures trading. The statements come after several crypto-based exchange-traded futures (ETFs) proposals were withdrawn last week, at the encouragement of the SEC. Read More >>

You see that chart below? That’s the stock price for Long Island Iced Tea Corp. Sure, studies show that times of economic hardship and political turmoil track with an increased desire to get sloshed, but the drinks this company makes are non-alcoholic. LTEA shot up over 200 per cent today because it changed its name—to Long Blockchain. Read More >>

Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency apps, surprised its users by adding Bitcoin Cash to its offerings on Tuesday. But it appears that not everyone trading in the altcoin was blindsided by the move. Before the announcement, prices for Bitcoin Cash began climbing in other markets, and now a self-investigation of possible insider trading has been initiated. Read More >>

If you’re like most people, you do not like the financial industry, perhaps because they crashed the national economy nearly a decade ago and the vast majority of the recovery went to the already rich. Well, some news from the Nordic region: Our new robot overlords might wipe the billion-pound grin off the industry’s face in the coming years. Read More >>

Martin Shkreli, the convicted securities fraudster, insufferable troll, and so-called “Pharma Bro” widely loathed for jacking up the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim, bought the Wu-Tang clan’s single-copy album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in 2015, impressively making himself even more widely loathed. It’s possible yet the public will get to hear that album, as the US Department of Justice is demanding Shkreli fork it over as part of a $7.4 million (around £5.4 million) forfeiture, CNBC reported on Friday. Read More >>

At this point, anyone pretending to know what the ceiling is on Bitcoin should be considered no more reliable than a palm reader. On Tuesday, the trading price of the most prominent cryptocurrency hit $10,000 (£7,510) for the first time. And that nice round number will almost certainly have the kind of psychological effect that brings in new traders. Read More >>

A few weeks ago, Jordan Belfort—the notorious “Wolf of Wall Street” and convicted financial scam artist—warned the entire internet not to get into dodgy cryptocurrency-backed startups. Specifically, he warned that initial coin offerings, a form of almost completely unregulated investment vehicle where crypto-backed startups offer blockchain-based “tokens” in exchange for things of real value like cash, were the “biggest scam ever, such a huge gigantic scam that’s going to blow up in so many people’s faces.” Read More >>

The venture capital world is dominated by men—and for companies led by women, especially companies creating products FOR women, pitching to these male investors can be a demoralising experience. Women sitting on billion-pound ideas aren’t taken seriously simply because the people writing the cheques don’t understand their experience. Read More >>

China has a debt problem. More specifically, Chinese citizens are suddenly drowning in debt after the country opened the door to personal lending in 2014. Now people are borrowing money so recklessly that at least one woman literally rearranged her face in order to avoid paying back her £2.8 million debt. It almost worked, too. Read More >>

Sometimes it pays to spend. The central bank of Bangladesh has found that out the hard way, as police are blaming its loss of the equivalent of £55m during a hack on cheap routers worth about £7. Read More >>